Court chides 'public records police'

An appellate court describes three men hoping to profit from the destruction of old police 911
tapes as "public records police" who hope "to become some of the highest paid 'police' in
Ohio."

The 12th District Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a Madison County Common Pleas Court ruling
that one of the men, George Bell, would not be paid a dime of the $22 million he sought for the
destruction of old reel-to-reel tapes used by London police between 1994 and 1999.

In their
unanimous ruling, the three judges cited the recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling
in
Rhodes v. New Philadelphia that a party must be aggrieved -- must demonstrate a sincere interest in the content of the
records -- rather than shopping for civil penalities to prevail in a records-destruction
lawsuit.

Bell was among three men who had filed lawsuits across the state seeking old police audio tapes
that they knew long ago had been replaced by digital recording technology. If questions arose
whether the old tapes were destroyed in compliance with state law, they pounced. Damages of up to
$1,000 for each improperly destroyed record could be collected at the time they filed their legal
actions.

The flurry of lawsuits prompted the Ohio General Assembly to enact a
law limiting
damages and attorney fees to $10,000 each in records-destruction cases. The law change, adopted
briefly before the Supreme Court ruling, also permits courts to deny damages when plaintiffs are
motivated by money.